The start of the season did not go according to Mercedes expectations, so as to push the team to evaluate the transition to a different concept from the one in which it had invested so much in the last year and a half. However, the process to arrive at this “revolution” will take time and cannot be fully completed during this championship, also because some elements will require a more in-depth review which can only be done in winter.
Currently Lewis Hamilton and George Russell find themselves battling with a single-seater that has given small glimmers of competitiveness, when compared in the group made up of Ferrari and Aston Martin, but which has never been constant, generally placing itself as the slowest of the trio behind Red Bull.
On several occasions, the seven-time world champion has highlighted various defects affecting the W14, from the lack of load at the rear to the too forward position of the cockpit, but the element on which he has expressed the greatest criticism is driveability.
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes F1 W14
Photo by: Andy Hone / Motorsport Images
“The car is really difficult to drive this year. Today I had a decent pace, this shows that we are on the right direction and, once we have the updates, we will be in a much better position” explained the rider from Stevenage at the end of the Baku race.
Having identified the car’s design flaws ahead of pre-season testing in Bahrain, the team has started to work more steadily on a revised car, with the first major update scheduled for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at the end of May . Wolff spoke of the “need to manage everyone’s expectations” regarding the step forward that developments will bring about in the immediate future and indicated driveability and ground clearance management as the main areas of attention.
“The goal is [avere gli aggiornamenti a] Imola. I just have to manage everyone’s expectations, because we’re talking so much about the update that when we put it on track, we won’t necessarily be running for Red Bull. I think it will be a good starting point,” explained the Mercedes Team Principal.
George Russell, Mercedes F1 W14, makes a pit stop
Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images
Allison has already noted that the team is working on more downforce, but the engineering group is also working on a revised front suspension, which, according to Allison “will help the overall balance of the car to make it more drivable”.
“For our car, ride control is more important than pure and simple downforce. We could put a lot of downforce on the car, but the car would be too low and too stiff,” Wolff added again.
“It can be seen from the scoreboards that the [Red Bull] Barely budges on the bumps on the straights, car balance is easy. If you look at all the other onboards, it seems like the cars are tough. I think in general ground effect cars are crap cars, it’s just who has the least crap, right?”
James Allison, technical director of Mercedes-AMG
Photo by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
Wolff said that if it weren’t for F1’s cost ceiling, Mercedes would have brought in an all-new chassis later in the season, but instead focused on suspension and underfloor aerodynamics given financial constraints.
“We have to carefully decide what we want to improve: at Imola we will bring a new front suspension and the consequent update of the aerodynamics and the bottom. If the platform is the right one, it’s not so much about adding 10 points of downforce.
“It’s more about giving the drivers a car where, if they turn the wheel when cornering, they know the rear won’t overtake them: that’s the problem.”
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